You didn't just get a puppy because it was painfully adorable (though that probably didn't hurt.) Turns out, pets actually make us better people. We've known for a while that pets lower blood pressure and anxiety but now we know they also help increase empathy, leadership, and social engagement. Wanna be more charismatic? Try caring for something with paws!

While more than 20 years of science has looked at the health benefits humans reap from having a pet, including lowering blood pressure and anxiety and preventing allergies in kids, until now, not much research has been done on the impact animals have on their owners' character. This recent work found that caring for a pet increased empathy, leadership, and social engagement. "As the field of how human and animal health interact becomes more rigorous, people are starting to discover how important pets are in our lives," author Megan K. Mueller, who is a developmental psychologist and a professor at the Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine, tells Yahoo Shine.